The present invention relates generally to communications and computer networks. More specifically, alerting users to dynamic content accessible via a communications or computer network that is of interest at the time of the alert is is closed.
The use of the Internet, and in particular the World Wide Web, and other communication and computer networks has grown dramatically in recent years. The emergence of technologies for broader bandwidth communications, better compression technology, and new and less expensive digital recording and imaging technology, have all contributed to explosive growth in the volume and diversity of content available via communication and/or computer networks, such as the World Wide Web.
However, this proliferation of content, such as audio, image, and video content, presents certain challenges from the perspective of users seeking content of current interest. First, the shear volume of content available makes it difficult for users to find the content in which they are most interested in accessing at any given time. Apart from having to sort through the enormous volume of content available, much of the content of potentially greatest interest, at least to many users, is dynamic. At certain times, a file or other electronic resource may be of great interest while at other times, or perhaps even most of the time, it is not of great interest or not interesting at all.
For example, thousands of and perhaps in excess of a hundred thousand web cameras, or xe2x80x9cwebcamsxe2x80x9d, are in use. Webcams are cameras used to provide images of a target of interest via a site on the World Wide Web. Images are updated in varying manners and at varying intervals, depending on the site. A webcam might be used, for example, to provide images of a watering hole in Africa. Typically, users would access a website associated with the webcam to view activity at the watering hole. However, there would be many periods during which nothing of particular interest (e.g., no animals, etc.) would be happening at the watering hole. Conversely, there would be occasional periods when activity of great interest would be occurring, such as the presence of a rare or endangered animal at the watering hole. Users would have no way of knowing when such activity would be occurring, and might miss the most interesting images if they did not happen to check the website at the right time. The same problems arise with respect to files or other electronic resources other than webcam content provided via the World Wide Web, including other media such as audio.
As a result, there is a need for a way to alert users to web content or other electronic resources available via a communications or computer network that are of interest at a particular time. To meet this latter need, there is a need to provide a way to become aware that dynamic web content or an electronic resource other than web content is of interest at a given time, and to quantify the degree or level of current interest. In addition, there is a need to consider the interests of a user when determining which web content or other electronic resources likely will be of the greatest interest to the user.
There is also a need to ensure that interested users receive alerts with respect to web content or other electronic resources that are of interest only to a relatively small community of users, or that are of interest on only relatively rare or infrequent occasions. There is a risk, otherwise, that indications of current interest regarding such files and other electronic resources would be masked by more voluminous or frequent activity with respect to more widely popular or pervasive resources or types of resources (such as pornography sites on the World Wide Web).
Accordingly, alerting users of items of current interest is disclosed. The level of current interest of a particular file or other electronic resource is determined based on indications received from alerting users. One or more users receive an alert that the item is of current interest. Normalization of the level of current interest of a file or other resource, such as to adjust for items of current interest to a small community or for items of current interest only infrequently, also is described.
It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a device, a method, or a computer readable medium such as a computer readable storage medium or a computer network wherein program instructions are sent over optical or electronic communication links. Several inventive embodiments of the present invention are described below.
Normalizing a measure of the level of current interest of an item that is based on indications of interest received from one or more users of a network via which the item is accessible is disclosed. In one embodiment, an intensity value is determined for each successive indication of interest received with respect to an item. At the time each successive indication of interest with respect to the item is received, an intensity rank based at least in part on the intensity value of the received indication is calculated. The calculated intensity rank is multiplied by a normalization factor to determine a normalized intensity rank.
In one embodiment, a computer is configured to determine an intensity value for each successive indication of interest received with respect to an item; calculate at the time each successive indication of interest with respect to the item is received an intensity rank based at least in part on the intensity value of the received indication; and multiply the calculated intensity rank by a normalization factor to determine a normalized intensity rank. A database, associated with the computer, is configured to store data relating to the item.
In one embodiment, a computer program product for normalizing a measure of the level of current interest of an item that is based on indications of interest received from one or more users of a network via which the item is accessible comprises computer instructions for determining for each successive indication of interest received with respect to the item an intensity value; calculating at the time each successive indication of interest with respect to the item is received an intensity rank based at least in part on the intensity value of the received indication; and multiplying the calculated intensity rank by a normalization factor to determine a normalized intensity rank.